Parts of Speech - Part 1

Besides understanding some basic punctuation tips for writing, it is important to learn the role that each word plays in a sentence. With an infinite world of possibilities, a language always needs an organization and English is not the exception. There are many ways to categorize all the words, but the most traditional method is in 8 parts. In this post we will revise 4 and complete an exercise.

1. Noun: a person, a place, or a thing.

• Common nouns are non-specific, like woman, city, or dog.
• Proper nouns are specific, like Mirella, Milan, Candy.
• Collective nouns refer to groups of people, places, or things, like audience, crowd, or pack (group of dogs).
• Possessive nouns manifest ownership, like Charles' keyboard, or a girl's purse. 

2. Pronoun: replaces a noun.

• Relative pronouns are words that introduce adjective clauses: who, whom, whose, that, which.
• Possessive pronouns show ownership: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs.
• Reflexive pronouns are used to refer to the subject of the sentence. For example: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
• Intensive pronouns emphasize another noun or pronoun, like in the sentence: She danced with the General Manager himself.
• Indefinite pronouns do not refer to an specific noun and they replace it: each, everything, one, everyone, someone, anything, both, many, several, few, all, most, none, some, much.

3. Verb: action or state.

• Action verbs tell what the subject does, like jump, kiss, laugh.
• Transitive action verbs need a direct object, like in the sentence: Nicole drank the water.
• Intransitive verbs do not need a direct object, like in t6he question: Who came?
• Verb phrases are made of one main verb and one or more helping verbs.
• Helping verbs join another verb to make the meaning clearer: do, does, did, have, has, had, shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must.
• Linking verbs are added to the subject and the predicate and do not express action, but help the words at the end of the sentence name and describe the subject: be, feel, grow, seem, smell, remain, appear, sound, stay, look, taste, turn, become.

4. Adjective: describes nouns.

• Common adjectives describe nouns or pronouns, like pretty girl or small box.
• Compound adjectives are are built with more than one word, like English-speaking country.
• Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns, like Ecuadorian bananas.
• Articles are a special type of adjective. There are definite: a, an, the; and indefinite: all, either, another, few, any, many, both, more, each, most, neither, several, other, some.

Exercise

Write which parts of speech are the underlined words

You have to take out the garbage. 

We traveled to Africa. 

I was very hungry and she just ignored my needs.

That guitar is mine and Bob has to return it.

Surveys show that many people is going to vote for that candidate.

He will propose at the dinner this evening.

Stephanie was really happy for the job promotion.

In addition, choose a classmate and without saying its name, write a short summary about those things you know about him or her, with the following format:

Noun: bold
Pronoun: underlined
Verb: Italics
Adjective: UPPERCASE

Present that text to your class and they will have to guess who you are talking about. If the person you chose was already mentioned by someone else, you will be given 10 minutes to rewrite your story and make your classmates guess again; until the activity has been completed by everybody. Good luck!